Share

This photo shows the first Occidental Hotel, at 1st Avenue and Yesler Way, during a memorial after the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. The wood-framed hotel opened in 1861.

John Collins built a new, grander Occidental Hotel in 1883. In February 1884, the Puget Sound National Bank moved into its ground-floor room.

The Occidental Hotel stands near the center of this view looking south on 1st Avenue. This photo is believed to have been taken on June 5, 1889 -- one day before most of downtown Seattle burned to the ground.

Here is the same view, a few days after the Great Fire.

This view of Hotel Seattle was taken after the Pioneer Square pergola was built in 1909.

By the time its giant neighbor, the Smith Tower, opened in 1914, the Hotel Seattle's rooms had been converted into offices.

By 1961, the Hotel Seattle was all but abandoned. Downtown leaders drew up "Urban Renewal" plans to flatten it and much of the rest of Pioneer Square for parking garages.

The Hotel Seattle was demolished in 1961 and replaced by the "Sinking Ship" garage. This action galvanized Seattle's historic preservation movement and led to the listing of all of Pioneer Square as a National Historic District in 1970.

New brick buildings, including the Occidental Hotel, had risen from the ashes by the early 1890s. The renamed "Hotel Seattle" occupied a busy corner in 1900, served by cable cars and a tangle of utility lines.

This is a history of the Rise, Fall, Rise, and Fall of the Occidental Hotel, located in Seattle's Pioneer Square, from 1881 to the present. Written and Curated by Paul Dorpat, with Steven Leith. Presented by Priscilla "Patsy" Collins.

Occidental Hotel at James Street (l.) and Yesler Way, Seattle, February 19 or 20, 1884

Courtesy UW Special Collections (PSE036)

Fred Bassetti on the Sinking Ship Parking Lot

Ralph Anderson on the fight to save Seattle Hotel

Aftermath of Seattle's Great Fire, Yesler Way from Railroad Avenue, June 6, 1889

Courtesy MOHAI

2nd Ave looking south from Union, Smith Tower in the distance under construction, Seattle, 1913

Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that
encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both
HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any
reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this
Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For
more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact
the source noted in the image credit.

Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided
By:
The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins
| Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry
| 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle
| City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach
Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private
Sponsors and Visitors Like You